'Now It's Buy a Gun, Go to Florida'

Peirce makes a clear and valid point. As the most heavily armed nation with the highest murder rate in the Western world, what we don't need is more private gun ownership. Siege mentality pervades some city dwellers--fear of the "red tide" or the "urban guerrillas" or whatever.

Burglars don't buy guns--they steal them. If half the homes they break into have guns, they'll steal them. Burglars don't break into homes with people sitting in an easy chair cradling a shotgun. They ring the bell first. If no one is home, then they break in. The trick is to prevent burglars from getting in, not to lie in wait to blow them away. Chances are you'd be the victim, not the burglar.

This escalation of gun ownership--by youths in gangs, by psychotics, by average citizens--is scary. We don't need more guns. We reed other major social and economic and educational reforms. The tide is going the wrong way right now as far as I can see. And the NRA isn't helping one bit.